HOH. Again.

Zach may not be the most thrilling player but I was glad that he got a shot in the arm from his family.
It's always irked me to no end to see better-liked players with a puss on, complaining about their hardships, when they have a support system in that house. Zach's been relying on himself alone to help him keep his chin up and persevere; if he wasn't sidelined altogether he was nibbling on the crumbs of begrudging benefaction. That's bunk. So I'm happy that his loved ones were able to give him another, "Atta boy!"

Yeah, I'm a sap. Sue me.

From: Ronnie
To: Zack

Ah Zack, Zack, Zack! Your blog on CBS has shall we say just a little too much information in it my opinion. You do realize that the entire world can read this thing. Right? You know that it's on the internet don't you.

HAH too funny and so Zackish!

I've been a Dick fan (no double entendre, please) all along basically for his game play--I'm sure he's a Dick in real life but I'm a fan because of the way he's kept himself (with the help of AmErica) in the game. However, I'm pulling for Zach to win this thing, when I really didn't think he had much of a chance at all. He seems like a decent guy, hasn't done too much trash talking and he seems smart. He's peaking at the right time and I think he'll win the final HoH as well. I wouldn't be upset with Dick winning either. I just don't want Jameka in the final 2 and I don't want Daniele aka entitled Princess to win either.

Last night's veto wasn't about saving anyone. It was about breaking up the strongest alliance in the house this year and the only real one remaining.

It strikes me as ironic that Zach has spent the bulk of the summer explaining that everyone else plays emotionally, but he plays strategically. Well, last night he played emotionally. He chose to use his veto to save Danielle because she has been nice to him spoken to him.

Certainly, he can't expect that Dick or Danielle are going to keep him to F2 over their own family. That's just naive. All he did was trade having one person target him this week to having two target him next week. If he had used the veto, Danielle would have been evicted, Dick would target Zach, Zach and Jameka (or Eric) would likely target Dick.

He blew it and now has almost no chance of survival to the end.

Hee! Zach's HOH blog made me giggle. He's such a big goober!!

yes, but a lovable goober!

* looks around *

just me, then?

I can't help it, I always always always root for the person that's ostracized in the house. Especially when it's not for a good reason. Being nerdy is not a good reason. He's weird but harmless, and has never done anything (that my short term memory can recall) that was especially nasty or vicious. I also agree that he's held himself together very well in there, with no one to really lean on.

I was put in mind of Cowturd..... Perhaps Zack does have a chance with Dani? She would take the money, and give Big Daddy the ultimate FO, since I dont see Dick laughing off Dani taking the money from him. Dani may be able to dump the Dick forever!!!!
I would take the chance!!!!

Oh yes, Goober is definitely an endearment from me! I have a soft spot for socially inept geeks....as evidenced by the man I married.....

Hee Hee ...that made me laugh, thats probably what my husband says about me.

I loved how he talked to Dani in the HOH. She pissed him off too. Good Job there Princess, pissing off HOH on nom day.

I wonder if he was throwing comps for awhile? He sure has won alot here lately.

I'm starting to like this kid! Win, lose or draw, I'm glad to see he's finally done away with the doormat routine. Good boy!!

I'm with you, if whiny daughter or boring Jameka wins, I will not be happy. Between Zach & Dick, interesting, they both played such opposite games, I'd like to see who the Jury would pick in the end.

Oh Zachbunny...it's too little too late. It doesn't matter who you put up. You can put up both D's, or you can only put up one. If you or Jameka does not win PoV, both D's are staying. There is no more strategy now. It's all about who wins competitions. You had your chance last night and you blew it.

Yeah, Zachbunny, I want a Donato gone, too. But, you might as well put up Jameka because if you or she doesn't win PoV, she's going home anyway.

do you really think he was throwing comps before, or he is just getting really lucky now? It IS kind of odd that he's blowing everyone out of the water at this point.

From the LF recaps:


Hee! Isn't Rage the one Zach was on Style Court with?

I can hardly wait until his next HOH diary. Except, not.

hey, woweee! I just caught up on the feed recaps from yesterday and today! Zach is seriously thinking of putting up D and D??? If he does that, I will forget how he could have gotten Dani out last night with the POV. I really figured Zach would plan for Jamesus to leave and would stick with the Donatos, promptly being voted of the final 3 if he didn't win HOH. Is it possible he's been planning this all along? That he is NOT a big doofus and was quietly waiting and strategizing to cut D and D loose at the last minute? That he was throwing competitions on purpose so no one would think he's a threat?

Or am I giving him too much credit?

Either way, this will be a more interesting week than I thought!

You are not giving him too much credit. GameMasterZach has been planning. D & D are about to go up.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Well, if Ferfe says so........
Let's hope!

If Zach does put up the Donatos, I take back anything negative I've said about Zach. If he indeed has been just putting on the goofy act all along just now to "bare his fangs" and take out D&D (at the very time they thought he was their puppet), I will be amazed... and impressed. If he can pull this off to the win, I may even consider him one of the better players ever. Even if he is up against Jameka at the end, he can always say that HE was the one who got the Donatos out in a one-two punch. That may impress the rest of the jury enough (other than D&D, of course), that he might just win.

If it all works out, then - just, wow.

He won HoH. He won veto. He won HoH. He hasn't lost one now that it matters. He said that it is every man for himself at this point and he was not even trying to make deal with Jameka though she gave it to him anyway. He told her very straight forward that he was putting her in a postion to get him further in the game. Either way he was in the F3. If she came through (and he did not even ask her to vote one way or the other if she got the veto and stayed off the block but she told him Dani anyway) ... if she came through it meant he only had to deal with one Donato in the F3.

We're back and Dick is pissed.

At first I didn't think that Zach had a chance in the F2 but if he does manage to oust a Donato, he might just sway some voters. That is if he points out that none of them had the balls to do it. Knowing Zach, his F2 speech will probably be geeky and no one will understand what the hell he is talking about.

On another topic, I was cracking up during the live show when Zach pointed out to Spawn that his HOH talk got cut from the show. Oh, Zach! Can't even get the guaranteed air time. Does Chenbot have it in her contract that she won't talk to Zach or something?

Go Zach! He did it! Now if only he or Jam wins Veto, I will be forced to jump on the Zach train after all.

He said that the Donatos flaw is they DO take it personally and he disdained their hypocrasy. Apparently he hit all of their hot buttons in his speech to them because they are annoyed as hell as they rehash the highlights.

For the first time since this game started, Zach is making sense and showing that he clearly understands how he is perceived, what his odds are and what needs to happen to get him $50k. He does not believe he has the jury votes to get $500k and it would seem he was never playing for the big prize. Very goal oriented and focused, is Zach.

He has holed himself up in HoH and put himself out of reach of the abuse. Jameka is taking his advice and has separated herself from the abuse.

This ain't the Zach that's been playing up until a week ago. I saw hints of this Zach and made sure I quoted him when I saw it -- one in this thread to Jameka.

Hey, I will eat those words for a dollar. If he has been holding back, good for him. Good for him for putting up D + D. Please let him or Jam win veto.

He is still Zach in that he seems genuinely puzzled by them being so angry that he is playing the game. They did not respect him back when he wasn't winning comps and not making what they considered bold strategic moves. Now that he is winning comps and making bold strategic moves (Geeks call it sniping - wait until the last possible second and then blind side them) he does not understand why they don't respect that either. He is very typical geek in his square wave thinking. Computer circuits work in on\off. Do this. Get reaction. Do opposite. Get opposite reaction. Except the Donatos are not logical, they are relentlessly mean. You can't win with them or gain their respect no matter what you do.

At least he is astute enough to be wary of the abuse angle and hopefully head it off at the pass.

well, I definitely misinterpreted him. He knew he wasn't liked by the other hamsters and said as much throughout the season, but I still thought he didn't quite get or care about just how much of an outsider he was. He seemed like he was in a completely other world or something, and the remarks and actions of the others didn't seem to register with him. But after hearing him talk to Jamesus in the HOH it was pretty clear how much he WAS aware of it, and that it hurt his feelings and pissed him off. He's also been quietly sizing people up and making all these observations of the others that he's seemingly using to his advantage now. I still think he's a nerd, but he's also one cool cucumber, Zach Rabbit is!

Also just gotta say I'm happy that Zach Rabbit had the cojones to turn on his "alliance" like that and put em both up, I never thought he would do it!

I think Zach gets the Donatos pretty well. Dick is a childish bully and Daniele is selfish and spiteful, but they both know very well that Zach made the right decision and Zach knows they know it. The Ds may not admit that, but if Zach had done anything else, they'd be snickering about his stupidity.

ETA: Ok, they're snickering about his stupidity anyway, but still.

Zach = the Verbal Kint of Big Brother.

Since Jen left, I've been fully aboard the Zach train even though I thought some of his decisions were totally dumbass. But, it does seem like he's been thinking more about the game than I gave him credit for.

The only problem is, I'm afraid that it's too late. He took a huge risk playing the way he did. At this point in the game it's no longer a strategy game. He's relying completely on his ability to win these competitions. Obviously he feels very confident that he can pull this off. If he does, then I will admit that he deserves accolades and the win...or at least his 2nd place that he appears to be shooting for. I'm just afraid of how it's going to turn out because the Donatos are a solid 50%. Dani has proven to be a strong competition competitor, and Dick has won his fair share. Jameka, not so much. It's all completely up to him to get himself and Jameka to final 2. (And who knows if that's his plan even, maybe he still plans on taking Dick. He's very guarded, that one.)

I think last night he was really debating on whether or not to send a Donato home when he won PoV. He weighed it in his head and chose not to use it because he was relying on his competition strength. I hope that he's right and that he made the right move. But, I dare not get my hopes up yet. There's no gaurantee at all that the Donatos won't be final 2. They could easily win the last two competitions. And, I don't want to set myself up to get disappointed again. He could have assured at least one of them went home last night. But, then maybe he thought sending one out last night was too soon and he wouldn't have a chance with Eric and Jameka both in the house. Who knows? He's played a risky game. I hope it pays off for him.

Go Jam and Zach...one of you better win that veto!

I just don't think Zach is any *worse* position than he was before nominating Dani and DICK!. He still would have been out third if he didn't win Veto. So I find his timing pretty good, as he really has nothing to lose at this point.

If Zach really did thank Jamesus for helping him find OGG in the house, he is dead to me forever.

What a crock of crap!

Putting up the Donatos would have been respectable, but hiding behind Jamesus' OGG act would show him to be the clumsy idiot that the Donatos think that he is.

But if he had gotten rid of Daniele yesterday then it really would be a one-two punch. He has no idea how any of this will work out now. I guess I just don't understand why he didn't get her out when he knew it would happen. He took a huge chance, which is great and all but if his plan all along was to get the Donatos out then why didn't he get rid of one last night? Did he really hate Eric that much?

At this point though, I think he may win no matter what. No one likes Daniele or Dick very much and Zach has done much more in the last week than Jameka's done in the whole game. Maybe he's trying to take Dick to the end so that Dick can't turn the jury against him. Who knows? I am confused now.

In a word...

...WORD.

I just don't get why you take your chances with TWO Donatos instead of one. At f4 the alliances can change SO quickly...but not this time, since there's NO chance D & D will turn on one another. I still think Zach bought a ticket straight to third place.

AH HA!
This, my friends, is why Zach did not make his ballsy move yesterday. He did not have the rest of the Sandwich Alliance out to consult with and he didn't want to make a move without their input.

Now today-he confers with the sammich and presto-we have Donato Nominations!

You'll see I'm right-check the tapes.

Aye, there's the rub.
As you correctly observe: Hope is not a strategy.

Zach's decision not to use the POV to evict Daniele was, in fact, the safest play and it will most likely come back to haunt him. Why wouldn't it? Daniele's a very poor sport and raging hypocrite but she's also as competitive a racehorse - particularly when she's bearing a gigantic grudge.

Zach's making lemonade from lemons now, trying to back-build reason into a weak move. He's opting to play to the jury after being too afraid to fully commit and muscle a very strong competitor out of the house. It may work, or it may be for nought. My guess is the latter.

If Zach had planned this all along (or even devised a genius play on the fly) he would have skipped the beer last night, brought Jameka up to the HOH, let her in on the plan, given her a rousing pep talk and started readying her for competition. Instead, he got piss drunk, gassed on about his strategic prowess, made a ham-fisted play to create another god-alliance and let the bottom drop out of her request to do jedi-training. "I don't know that shit," where his exact words to her as he drunkenly shrugged his shoulders. Whooops.

As it stands now: Jameka's still too downtrodden and ill-prepared to compete with all her might. Meanwhile, the Donatos are in full bunker mentality and ready to shove Zach's weak move so far up his own ass that he can taste it. And good ol' Zach is hiding out in the HOH room, probably second-guessing himself.

The result of tomorrow's POV competition isn't too hard to predict. Only sheer luck can keep this from biting Zach and Jameka in the ass now.

I don't know that Zach could have reliably guessed the outcome if he had vetoed Jam or Eric and put up Daniele. Without any chance for consultation, he and Jameka (or Eric) could have voted differently and left the decision up to Dick. Zach may have felt that he was pretty certain Eric would go and thought that Jameka would be more likely to work with him. He said openly he didn't trust Eric so perhaps he thought that Eric (if he stayed) would go back with the Donato's and then it would be 3-1.

Or, in the heat of the moment, maybe he just wasn't thinking at all.

He said he couldn't trust Eric.

I said over in the Eric thread that Eric should have offered Zach a deal in his "please veto me" speech and said flat out, "Take me off. Daniel goes up. I'll vote her out." Eric offered no deal. Zach could not be sure Eric would vote out Dani if she went up and he would then be stuck with three (Eric, Dick, Dani) against him in the final four. Eric failed. Zach did the safest thing based on what he knew to be true at the time.

Zach is a gamer. He has these players in a matrix (not the movie kind, but the math kind). When Jess was HoH, Zach was discussing Jess and Eric as an equation. That was when he called Eric the X-Factor. Eric's actions did not add up in Zach's head so he knew there must be some unseen data somewhere that needed to be factored in - AP (not "x", Zach) which is the derivative of asshole inverted.

He is still a completely dorky, socially inept geek, but he's a pretty damned astute game player. (Have they interviewed and featured Zach's family or friends on the show? No. Why is that?)

This is about as much analysis as I have ever posted on a player in eight seasons. I have never been this intrigued. With the possible exception of Dr. Will, who was a master manipulator but relied too heavily on Boogie and his own charm, there hasn't been a player like Zach in the history of BB USA.

And I'll stop now, because it all comes down to today's Veto and these idiots fail me every damned season.

I honestly don't think Zach is any kind of decent gamer. He floated through most of his time in the house, and mostly avoided being nominated and evicted because there were always bigger fish. That's cool as a strategy - it works. I don't think it was his strategy, however, he just zached into it because no one else wanted him. Then, when he was in a position to eliminate his worst threat competition-wise, he blew it. Now he's got to hope he or Jameka wins Veto, and them odds? Not so good.

Sorry to all the Zach lovers, but to me, he's the Chicken George of this season.

Until this week, Zach hadn't even made a game-related move that wasn't based on incorrect assumptions that nobody was ever targeting him. Until Dick and Dani sat him down and explained how many times he was almost on the block and voted out, I don't think he even realized anyone was gunning for him.

This is Zach's main problem. The man has NO self-awareness. His version of reality is a stark contrast to actual reality.

If he were smart, he wouldn't have set the Donatos on the defensive. He could have pulled off his "master" plan without nominating both of them. It still all comes down to he or Jameka winning the veto. It would have regardless of the nominations. Having the two most competitive people in the house feeling threatened and on the defensive is not where he should have wanted them going into the most important competition in the game. Especially considering Jameka sucks at competitions already.

Best game play for him would have been Dick/Jameka on the block, leaving Dani with a sense of safety (however small it may be). Right now, she's pissed. She may be little, but she's the biggest gamer in the house, both strategic and competition-wise. I wouldn't want to go head-to-head with a kid who has made a habbit of killing it in these sorts of competitions. Especially when she knows she's fighting for her life. She's a scrapper.

I hope she wins the veto, reminds this little shithead that she's had his back since week 4 and then kicks his sorry butt to the curb when she wins the final HOH.

C'mon Zach. Poking the lion while it's sleeping is NEVER a good idea. If it's a physical competition and he comes out of the veto competition with all limbs in tact, I'll be surprised.

I don't know, I kind of agree with Ferfe. I think Zach is a lot smarter than I gave him credit for, but his social shortcomings will probably throw a wrench in everything. Like this supposed nomination speech- I can totally envision him waxing poetic about OGG and saying all the wrong stuff, even though his thought process to put up D and D, and his observations of the other players in the house this season, have been pretty spot on.

However, social ineptitude aside, I WILL be worshipping at the altar of Zach Rabbit if he can pull of this POV today.

In my analysis earlier, I was not trying to imbue Zach with "super powers" hither to unnoticed. It just finaly clicked into place for me how he was viewing this game. In his head, the man is playing some weird version of World of Warcraft. The big boss battle always comes last.

When he kept mentioning the "matrix" I thought, "Dork. This show is nothing like that movie.
There are no parallels." Then he had the "equation" talk with Jess and Eric and I started wondering. This week it finally clicked. Good or bad at it, he's a gamer. He's a graphic artist and probably spends hours a day playing the online computer role playing games. These are not people to him so much as they are characters. Sure, he'd like to become friends with the people controling the characters, but for most geeks that never works out.

And on the POV note - His chances of pulling off this POV are low. In the end I think it will come down to an endurance comp against the D's and he has proven he can grind through endurance comps at least once. Unless BB gives an advantage to Dani's petite build he has a good chance at the final two regardless of this POV.

He could have left Eric up and pulled Jameka off the block. Even she could figure out that his intention would be to have Daniele gone and I think she would vote out Daniele over Eric anyway. She may not like Eric much (I really don't know) but she does like Jessica and she has been pretty loyal to people she likes throughout. She also knows that Daniele is a tough competitor. Also, I'm not sure she's a huge fan of the Donatos so even without being able to confer about votes I think she would have gotten rid of Daniele.

I just really don't see any sense in keep both Dick and Daniele. If he wanted a chance to make some big dumb speech when he nominated them then that's really stupid and he could have done it when he vetoed either Jameka or Eric. He could have broken up two strong alliances that night and left four individual players, three of whom would probably pick Dick to leave next. I think that he would have had an easier time beating Eric, Jameka and Dick in any comps. I just don't get him.

Zach's instinct not to trust Eric was spot on, as we all know, but realistically speaking he wasn't big on trust for anyone other than Nick.

I don't want to be too hard on the guy; he's doing a fair job of playing it as it lays. Today will be the big test for his willpower. Dick's being goaded to "stir it up" and we all know what that means... Zach's in for a rough morning of verbal abuse.

Will it break Zach's concentration, and his winning streak? Maybe, maybe not. I really think Zach tipped his hand by hiding out in the HOH room (for the most part). His drive was falling apart because he thinks he should have earned some respect by now. As FerfeLaBat noted earlier, "[T]he Donatos are not logical, they are relentlessly mean. You can't win with them or gain their respect no matter what you do."

So Dick may be preparing to do Zach a huge favor by "slandering" him (as he and Daniele put it late last night). If Zach can tap into his righteous indignation again, he should compete well and win the POV.

If he pulls that off, and winds up in the F2, I think the jury would give him half a million dollars - even if he's up against Jameka.

I am so conflicted about Zach being the possible winner.
I really don't understand him, and don't care for him much.
He's just one of those people, that when the season ends, I'll just forget about...even if he does win.

I am not 100% but from what I have heard/read "Sweets" is the nickname for Zach's ex-girlfriend who he feels he did not appreciate properly when she was in his life and would now like to reconcile with after the show.

I guess after 3 months of watching what passes for romance in this house Zach realized how good he had it.

That Zach is a master of the clever nickname.

A couple of days ago I posted that my race-dar (kinda like gaydar lol) was telling me this guy had issues with jameka grounded in race. a couple of other posters disagreed or didn't see it - I hoped then they were right. This morning, in a growing plot to "get to zach", dick pulled out the race card - threatening to expose Zach for his racist comments. Dick has since been called to the DR and comes out saying he can't use the N-word.

This is my GUESS as to what happened. As happens to me over the phone, folks don't think I'm African-American and you would be surprised the wacky stuff they say to me. This also happened in college, where good friends of mine who happened to be white came to me amazed at the nerve of a mutual white friend who came to THEM talkin' racial smack about me. In their cozy backyard chats I heard Zach use "homo" as an explative when referring to Dustin. He and Dick have had lots of chats and I'm thinkin' he let himself go, thinking he was talkin' "in the family", and said some N-word stuff about Jameka. I'm thinking Dick, being older and savier about these things, even if he agreed, didn't reciprocate. He'd call Jameka a fake, a *itch but he wouldn't go the race route - in his business, he knows better.

I can see BB putting the kibosh on Dick using this info given Klanber and her issues but I sure wish they wouldn't. The nuances of american race prejudice fascinate me. Folks are so subtle with it and we have all chosen to ignore soooooo much undertone/signal stuff in order to just get through a day, most of us are happy to live as though race/class dynamics are no longer at play in our interactions. Watching these folks reminds me of how far we've come and how far we still have to go.

I haven't heard or seen Zach use the N-word. Has anyone else seen Zach say anything about Jameka that was racially charged? It would have been all over YouTube I would have thought. I know he said "That's mighty white of you." but has he said anything else?

It's insidious. All you have to do is make the acusation and there is no defense.

Ferfe, I haven't actually seen it or heard it, but it very well may be possible. I have heard him towards the beginning of the season say some things regarding Dustin and Jameka that made me a little uncomfortable although I can't quote them off the top of my head. Sure we see quite alot of Zack on the feeds now (still not as much as the other as winessed by Jam's empty bed being on the screen this very morning because it was more interesting than Zack sleeping in the HOH), but back when this was supposedly said, Zack was rarely shown on the feeds. He was a vitual non-entity and it could have been said off camera. That's just my guess though. And on the other hand it could just be something Dick is making up to mess with Jameka because he knows she is sensitve in the matter of race and her portrayal of her race on camera.

I completely understand where you're coming from with this but I disagree. I know Zach has issues with homophobia, and it's a fair assumption that that irrational muck probably extends to race too. But I've never heard Zach use blatantly racist language so I think Dick's using artistic license with that "N-word" horse shit, in an attempt to prey on Jameka's suspicions about the lotion incident.

I can easily see Zach being uncomfortable around black people but that doesn't always mean that somebody's a full-on bigot. When it comes to race, I like to give people some latitude because we are still largely segregated and true equality has yet to emerge in this country as a social and institutional standard.

I, for one, don't want Dick to "go there" - primarily because it stands to isolate and hurt Jameka more than it hurts Zach. Dick's not allowed to turn race relations into collateral damage in order to get to Zach in my book.